In Belgrade late on Sunday, Serbia's longtime leader Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections, saying early results made clear that his party had lost.1,2,4,6
Vučić had called the snap vote after two years of protests that began with the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy in the city of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. He had served two terms as president and could not seek a third, so he led his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) with the aim of returning to the prime minister's post he left in 2017. He had resigned the presidency the previous month to lead the campaign. The vote was seen as a showdown between him and a movement of university students who had led protests against him for almost two years.1,4
Speaking at the SNS headquarters in Belgrade, Vučić said, "We still do not have final results... it is clear that we have lost these elections." DW gave his words slightly differently, quoting him as saying, "Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we lost these elections."1,6
In the same speech, Vučić said projections had the youth-backed Students' List winning between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, while the SNS was projected to win around 105. He blamed Serbia's independent media for the loss and alleged interference from unnamed European countries and the "American deep state." The official tally had not been released at the time of the reports.6
Preliminary figures from Serbia's election commission showed a record high turnout, with 64.9% of voters having cast their ballots by 18:00 local time, two hours before polls were due to close. Commentators had suggested that a high turnout would favour the student movement. Earlier in the day, long queues had formed outside polling stations across Serbia, and similar lines were seen at booths in countries with sizeable Serbian communities, including Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, Germany's Munich, and Los Angeles and Chicago in the United States. In Paris, voters waited in heavy rain.1
The Student List has no obvious leaders, and its members are not used to politics. It fielded candidates from across Serbian society, including doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities. France 24 described its candidates as little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists, and said none of the students who shaped the movement were on the list. The Student List's lead candidate, Ilija Srdanović, told BBC Serbian, "This will be a free state." He said the movement hoped to "free the country from tyranny."1,4
The movement campaigned on a manifesto that included purging officials who broke rules in dealing with protesters, stopping party loyalists from leading public enterprises, and freeing the public broadcaster of political control. Vučić, who backs Serbia's candidacy for the European Union while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had pledged to increase pensions and public sector salaries and to invest in state healthcare. Vučić and the SNS have repeatedly denied corruption.1
The protests were set off by the collapse of the Novi Sad station canopy, which France 24 described as concrete. Protesters said that rampant graft led to negligence during renovation work at the station and, eventually, to the collapse. The anger reflected widespread accusations of high-level corruption and cronyism, and the protests demanded accountability for the disaster and justice for the victims.4
International and local election monitors had already expressed concern about the safety and fairness of a campaign marked by detentions, near-total government control over the media, and reports of surveillance and cyberattacks against activists. Local elections earlier this year in 10 municipalities saw violent attacks on journalists and activists. The previous parliamentary vote, in 2023, was followed by opposition protests alleging fraud. The European Union was watching the conduct of the vote closely.4
The vote took place amid high tensions across Serbia, and police sealed off streets around the Republic Electoral Commission in Belgrade. After Vučić's concession, crowds celebrated in the capital, where people danced, chanted "victory," honked car horns and set off fireworks. "Serbia is free," one student told the BBC. "It's a miracle." In Novi Sad, the centre of the city crowded with people, and David Vasić, one of those celebrating, told BBC Serbian, "Everything is going to get better now."1
Vučić had said his side would concede defeat if it lost the vote, but he had also warned that any protests to claim fraud in the event of his party's triumph would be immediately quashed. Magda Anastasijevic, the Eastern Europe analyst for the conflict monitor ACLED, said electoral violence had been rising in Serbia recently and could escalate, "particularly if the results are disputed."4
Election surveys had produced varied results before the vote, and both camps had said they were ahead. The state election commission is not expected to release the official tally before Monday.4
